Vesna Manojlovic @becha@v.st

No big deal. Just more than 150 cherry trees in DC having to be cut down because of land subsidence and climate change induced sea level rise of more than a foot.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/19/1238896379/cherry-blossom-trees-remove-stumpy-climate-change-washington-dc

"I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words."

~ Ursula K Le Guin

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/national-book-awards-ursula-le-guin

Quote:"Without an analysis of power, it is hard to understand inequality or much else in modern capitalism."

Good that finally some economists are waking up to see how much their simplistic models have ruined the world.

(Original title: Nobel laureate economist savages profession as clueless, unethical)

https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/03/12/nobel-laureate-economist-angus-deaton-capitalism-power/

The HN folks have discovered Devin, the AI software engineer. And suddenly they’re all Marxists.

Year 1 students of @xpub will launch their special issue, 'Peripheral centers and feminist servers', on Thursday 28.03.2024 in Varia. From 19:00 to 21:30.

Peripheral centers and feminist servers investigate multiple approaches to the conditions of serving. It interrupts the endless flow of data that fuels the economy, exposing the cracks and gaps of the techno-scientific paradigm imposed on society. Where commands are executed, connections made, trust exchanged, and resources shared.

This feminist data center brings to light the physical infrastructure and actual labour which enable the processes we perform every day. In this exploration, we think through feminist approaches that reveal the concealed layers of our on(off)line interactions. We broaden our understanding of how this tangible, energy-intensive infrastructure truly operates behind the seemingly innocent notion of the 'cloud'.

The various projects within Peripheral centers and feminist servers expose their infrastructure, emphasizing the material conditions of their production. We advocate that the fairy tale of immateriality has real socio-economic-environmental consequences.

Peripheral centers and feminist servers is realised in the context of the Special Issue 23 of the Experimental Publishing Master.

https://varia.zone/en/peripheral-centers-feminist-servers.html

As autistic people, we don’t need to apologize to others for our differences.

Illustration by Izzy @autieselfcare

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD @actuallyautistic

I finalized my epaper calendar! 🤩
Calendar events are pulled from @homeassistant the device itself is running @esphome. It automatically shows as many entries as can be fitted on the screen, same day entries get grouped together.

Optionally a random quote can be displayed on the bottom or alternatively the next event of the day. The device is battery powered and uses deep sleep to extend the battery life.

If you want to build your own: https://github.com/paviro/ESPHome-ePaper-Calendar

I am super grateful for boosts!

*‘Een cruciaal verschil is het cordon sanitaire dat in Wallonië nog altijd zeer serieus wordt genomen. Eigenlijk is er sprake van twee cordons: een politiek cordon en een mediacordon. Democratische partijen werken, ten eerste, op geen enkel niveau samen met uiterst rechts. Dat wordt politiek geïsoleerd. Ten tweede weigeren de media zulke groeperingen een platform te bieden. Sinds 2010 bestaan daarover formele afspraken tussen journalisten.*

https://www.groene.nl/artikel/hoeveel-tolerantie-wil-je-tonen-voor-intolerantie?utm_source=De+Groene+Amsterdammer&utm_campaign=0f0b6dc0cf-Dagelijks-2024-03-18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_853cea572a-0f0b6dc0cf-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Do you run a convention? Are you concerned about Covid and other respiratory diseases spreading at your con? Wondering what steps you can take to protect your attendees?

Our latest publication, "Recommendations for Convention Organizers", is for you!

We've put together a comprehensive outline of the many different tools you can use to reduce the spread of Covid and make your con safer and more accessible. We hope it'll help you create a strategy that works for your con and your attendees!

https://covidsafefurs.org/recommendations

An interesting funding opportunity from the SIDN Fund for a more sustainable internet. They're calling for tools and awareness projects that contribute to a more environmentally friendly digital infrastructure.
They are offering #grants of up to €75.000. The deadline is May 3.
https://www.sidnfonds.nl/call-duurzaam-internet [In Dutch]

BY THE NUMBERS

Pages of essays written: 18
Psychometric evaluations: 3
Personality test: 1
Number of interviews: 10+
Days between first and last contact: 107
Number of women I spoke to throughout the entire fucking process: 0
Emotional trauma: priceless

This week's comic on the blind zones of America's gargantuan trucks and SUVs.

#transit #cities #mobility #cars #bikes #pedestrians #transportation #safety

Me: Can I have a turn in the hedge now?

Hedgehog: No.